I recently had a conversation with my older sister who is an elementary school teacher in Colorado. She was very distressed. This is her first year teaching at her school, and she's already contemplating switching schools. Her principal is a tyrannical, power-abusing monster (my words, not hers). The principal refuses to listen to anyone's opinions about necessary changes, even if they're little things. In addition, the principal greatly dislikes one of the other teachers. This particular teacher already has tenure, so the principal can't fire her. Instead, she fires anyone who befriends this teacher. According to my sister, this principal told one of the new teachers this year, "Be careful who you make friends with and whose side you take, it could cost you your job."
This is unbelievable to me. After talking with my sister, though, I had a similar conversation with my aunt - an ESL teacher at a college in Arkansas. Her department head takes offense at any suggestions offered (even when she asks for them). At a meeting, she asked if anyone had any suggestions for improving things. My aunt suggested they rearrange the furniture in the shared department office to improve space issues. Later, the department head approached her and severely rebuked my aunt for "undermining her authority in front of their co-workers".
Seriously, how do people like this get such high positions? These abuses of power make me nervous. I always thought teachers faced enough challenges just reaching their students inside the classroom. Now I learn that they face challenges from their colleagues outside the classroom as well.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Parental involvement
I'm conflicted about parental involvement in studies. Current philosophy encourages parental involvement on the theory that it is helpful to student success, but I don't think that this is always the case. Part of this is the current mismanagement of parental involvement. In my school, the only time parents are called is when something is wrong with a student. Parents are called to "discipline" their child and convince them to work harder in school. Am I the only one distressed by this? If parents are going to be involved in their child's education, it should be all the time, not just when the child has been "bad".
Another issue I have with parental involvement is the parents who just don't care. One of the teachers in my building told a story about a parent who didn't care what their child was doing. When the teacher stated that the child skipped class at least once a week and appeared tired and disinterested when he showed up, the parent responded with, "Yep. That sounds like him." and then made an excuse to leave the conversation. I think this is terrible, but I can't figure out a solution. I believe that parents should be interested in their child's education for multiple reasons, but what do you do about a parent that doesn't care about their child?
At my school, the teachers use Powerschool to share grades with parents. This allows parents to easily track their child's grades and progress. This system has several flaws, however. Most grades are not final until they are submitted at the end of a semester. At the beginning of a semester, if a student misses one assignment, they could have an F entered in Powerschool. This is not a reflection on them as a student, however. Once they turn in the assignment, their grade will go up, but their parent sees the F. Typical parent behavior dictates a blowup at this point.
In addition, not every parent even knows much about Powerschool. The high school I attended had something similar, and my parents didn't even know it existed. I never gave them the information. I kept it, and I used it to check my own grades. In my opinion, it was a stupid system. If my parents wanted to know my grades, the could ask me. There was no need for a computer to spit those answers back.
Another issue I have with parental involvement is the parents who just don't care. One of the teachers in my building told a story about a parent who didn't care what their child was doing. When the teacher stated that the child skipped class at least once a week and appeared tired and disinterested when he showed up, the parent responded with, "Yep. That sounds like him." and then made an excuse to leave the conversation. I think this is terrible, but I can't figure out a solution. I believe that parents should be interested in their child's education for multiple reasons, but what do you do about a parent that doesn't care about their child?
At my school, the teachers use Powerschool to share grades with parents. This allows parents to easily track their child's grades and progress. This system has several flaws, however. Most grades are not final until they are submitted at the end of a semester. At the beginning of a semester, if a student misses one assignment, they could have an F entered in Powerschool. This is not a reflection on them as a student, however. Once they turn in the assignment, their grade will go up, but their parent sees the F. Typical parent behavior dictates a blowup at this point.
In addition, not every parent even knows much about Powerschool. The high school I attended had something similar, and my parents didn't even know it existed. I never gave them the information. I kept it, and I used it to check my own grades. In my opinion, it was a stupid system. If my parents wanted to know my grades, the could ask me. There was no need for a computer to spit those answers back.
Assessment
My teacher uses three main assessment tools: worksheets, quizzes, and tests. The majority of the worksheets are done in class. She gives the students quiet reading time to fill out worksheets based on the chapter they're reading. The quizzes are given to her AP students in place of the worksheets. The theory is that students in AP shouldn't need in class time to work on their reading. Instead, they should come in having completed it already. Tests for her non-AP classes are multiple choice with short answer, and her AP classes get questions from old AP tests - sometimes multiple choice, sometimes essay.
I disagree with a lot of this system. First - it seems a little condescending to expect her AP kids to read but not her non-AP kids. Pre-conceived expectations drive me crazy. In addition, the whole quiet reading/answering worksheet questions thing bothers me. I think it's a gross waste of time. Most of the students aren't paying a lot of attention to the worksheet, and those that are don't need a worksheet to comprehend the reading. If I were to give out worksheets, I would allow my students to at least work in groups. Silent classrooms in non-test situations bother me. Students should be allowed to communicate and build ideas off of one another. In my experience, if allowed to work together, students actually do this. While they talk about other matters in addition to the work, they also complete the task and remember it better. I'm not, however, a fan of the formatting of her particular worksheets. To me, they are pure busy work. Students can literally read the text and copy answers right onto the page. It's highly repetitive. I guess some learners would find the repetition helpful, but I would find it extremely boring. Part of being a teacher is finding assignments that work with several different learning types instead of just one.
I also disagree highly with any test formatted in all multiple choice questions. Education is about so much more than the ability to spit back information. I don't mind essay tests, but only when they ask the students to process the information and explain why instead of just how.
I disagree with a lot of this system. First - it seems a little condescending to expect her AP kids to read but not her non-AP kids. Pre-conceived expectations drive me crazy. In addition, the whole quiet reading/answering worksheet questions thing bothers me. I think it's a gross waste of time. Most of the students aren't paying a lot of attention to the worksheet, and those that are don't need a worksheet to comprehend the reading. If I were to give out worksheets, I would allow my students to at least work in groups. Silent classrooms in non-test situations bother me. Students should be allowed to communicate and build ideas off of one another. In my experience, if allowed to work together, students actually do this. While they talk about other matters in addition to the work, they also complete the task and remember it better. I'm not, however, a fan of the formatting of her particular worksheets. To me, they are pure busy work. Students can literally read the text and copy answers right onto the page. It's highly repetitive. I guess some learners would find the repetition helpful, but I would find it extremely boring. Part of being a teacher is finding assignments that work with several different learning types instead of just one.
I also disagree highly with any test formatted in all multiple choice questions. Education is about so much more than the ability to spit back information. I don't mind essay tests, but only when they ask the students to process the information and explain why instead of just how.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Learning
I have noticed within my classroom that students are incredibly diverse learners. No two people are the exact same. I have some students who can only learn through repetition. They need to see/hear it several times in different formats. Other learners only understand once they've talked it through themselves. These are the ones who raise their hands and ask the long, meandering questions. I know that some teachers find this annoying, but these students have a genuine need to talk through the reasoning so that they understand the answer. It is interesting to note that these two students can help one another. If a student needs something repeated, another student who needs to repeat it can do so. By doing this, both students have their learning needs met.
By observing my classroom, as well as other classes in the department, I have noticed that teachers sometimes refuse to acknowledge diversity in learners. There are some who do a wonderful job of offering multiple methods for understanding material - they watch a video and do a powerpoint/lecture and read it in the book and give homework questions about it. This allows all types of learners to understand the material. Others, though, refuse to acknowledge differences. They teach everything the same way every time, and they get frustrated with students who do not understand the material. They label these students as slow or stupid. I'm tempted to ask if it's not the teacher who is slow or stupid. If a student does not understand the material, it is the teacher's job to reteach it in an alternate method to help the student understand. If the student still does not understand, reteach it a third time with a third method and so on until the student understands. Teachers should never give up on students and label them stupid because they learn in a different way than the teacher.
By observing my classroom, as well as other classes in the department, I have noticed that teachers sometimes refuse to acknowledge diversity in learners. There are some who do a wonderful job of offering multiple methods for understanding material - they watch a video and do a powerpoint/lecture and read it in the book and give homework questions about it. This allows all types of learners to understand the material. Others, though, refuse to acknowledge differences. They teach everything the same way every time, and they get frustrated with students who do not understand the material. They label these students as slow or stupid. I'm tempted to ask if it's not the teacher who is slow or stupid. If a student does not understand the material, it is the teacher's job to reteach it in an alternate method to help the student understand. If the student still does not understand, reteach it a third time with a third method and so on until the student understands. Teachers should never give up on students and label them stupid because they learn in a different way than the teacher.
Speakeasies
I had my first real interaction with the students today. I've been observing for two weeks, and my CT has left me in the room with them while a movie was running, but this was my first real "teaching" opportunity. I reviewed their homework with them.
I have to admit that I was way nervous during the first hour. I have a tough crowd of kids. They're not easily impressed and usually unwilling to cooperate. However, they were wonderful for me. I think they sensed how nervous I was, and they helped me out a lot. I had numerous volunteers to answer questions and I never had to volunteer anyone. It was a lot of fun, and I began to enjoy it more as the day went on. The later classes weren't as easy as the first period. By fourth period, I had all sorts of jokers. When asked about the Harlem Renaissance, one kid in the back yelled out, Wasn't that in Hawaii?
I tried my best to take everything in stride. I consider myself a pretty laid back teacher. My CT is the teacher who constantly battles to keep her classes quiet during movies and giving serious answers only. Yesterday, I monitored the room during the movie while she returned to her office for the period. I believe it's better to allow the students some flexibility. I allowed talking as long as it wasn't loud enough to distract other people from the movie.
Slowly, I'm learning that teaching does not have to be a battle. There are teachers who choose to fight over every little thing, trying to assert absolute control over their classes. My CT is like that. She has control over her class, but at what price? She's frustrated, tense, and exhausted. I'm of the opposite philosophy. Why fight little battles? Students are going to talk during a movie no matter how many times you shush them. I don't know why some teachers see this as a big deal. If they aren't disrupting someone else's learning, what's the problem? In addition, I would guess that about half of the time, they're discussing the movie anyway. Students will also shout out wrong answers on purpose to test your reaction. Some teachers think they deserve to be "dealt with" immediately or they will only get worse. I believe that if you take these students in stride and not treat them as nuisances, you don't have to fight the little battles. Instead, they see you as a teacher to be respected, not tested.Yes, your class will be a little noisier, but it will also be less of a war zone. Instead, you'll have created an actual learning environment.
I have to admit that I was way nervous during the first hour. I have a tough crowd of kids. They're not easily impressed and usually unwilling to cooperate. However, they were wonderful for me. I think they sensed how nervous I was, and they helped me out a lot. I had numerous volunteers to answer questions and I never had to volunteer anyone. It was a lot of fun, and I began to enjoy it more as the day went on. The later classes weren't as easy as the first period. By fourth period, I had all sorts of jokers. When asked about the Harlem Renaissance, one kid in the back yelled out, Wasn't that in Hawaii?
I tried my best to take everything in stride. I consider myself a pretty laid back teacher. My CT is the teacher who constantly battles to keep her classes quiet during movies and giving serious answers only. Yesterday, I monitored the room during the movie while she returned to her office for the period. I believe it's better to allow the students some flexibility. I allowed talking as long as it wasn't loud enough to distract other people from the movie.
Slowly, I'm learning that teaching does not have to be a battle. There are teachers who choose to fight over every little thing, trying to assert absolute control over their classes. My CT is like that. She has control over her class, but at what price? She's frustrated, tense, and exhausted. I'm of the opposite philosophy. Why fight little battles? Students are going to talk during a movie no matter how many times you shush them. I don't know why some teachers see this as a big deal. If they aren't disrupting someone else's learning, what's the problem? In addition, I would guess that about half of the time, they're discussing the movie anyway. Students will also shout out wrong answers on purpose to test your reaction. Some teachers think they deserve to be "dealt with" immediately or they will only get worse. I believe that if you take these students in stride and not treat them as nuisances, you don't have to fight the little battles. Instead, they see you as a teacher to be respected, not tested.Yes, your class will be a little noisier, but it will also be less of a war zone. Instead, you'll have created an actual learning environment.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Classroom Bouncing
Today my cooperating teacher loaned me out for the day. Her classes were all working on test prep today since my school is on the warning list for No Child Left Behind. All social studies teachers are supposed to bring their students to the computer lab at least once each semester to work on test prep activities. My teacher rolled her eyes but complied. As she pointed out, the low test scores here are not due to lack of test prep (the school actually received a plaque this year for having some of the highest ACT scores in Illinois) but a lack of student motivation. They find the extra testing for NCLB boring, useless, and a waste of time. Anyway, that's not the point of this blog.
By bouncing around classrooms today, I had the chance to observe several different uses of space and different teaching styles. The two favored classroom setups at my school are the U-shape and one where all of the desks face the same direction in rows but are spaced so that students are paired off (the front row would look like : -- -- -- ). The interesting thing about the U-shape is that teachers employed it differently. One teacher used a U where the seats were spread out. This limited student ability to talk to one another and forced them to concentrate on the teacher (which seems to defeat what I thought was the purpose of a U - class discussion). Another teacher used a close U. This allowed students to work easier in groups and facilitated discussion. The other shape I saw, with the desks paired off, was not, in my opinion, a good use of space. My cooperating teacher uses that shape, and she constantly struggles with chatting. I think that if you put the students in a shape like that, you are inviting them to chat with their neighbor. If you don't want chatting, don't shape your classroom like that. The one nice thing about that shape (with desks facing one direction) is that it facilitated lectures and movies. Most of the teachers I observed today made a point of telling me that when I teach I should be constantly changing what I'm doing. Watch part of a movie, lecture for a short time, hand out a worksheet, pair them off, etc. Never repeat the same activity for the entire period every single day. Sometimes, they said, it's necessary for time reasons to do one activity the whole time (if a movie is longer, if a lecture would lack coherence if cut up, or if you're running behind timewise), but you should the switch things up the next day. Through watching these various teachers operate and utilize the space they're given, I learned a lot about what to do (and what not to do!) when I teach.
By bouncing around classrooms today, I had the chance to observe several different uses of space and different teaching styles. The two favored classroom setups at my school are the U-shape and one where all of the desks face the same direction in rows but are spaced so that students are paired off (the front row would look like : -- -- -- ). The interesting thing about the U-shape is that teachers employed it differently. One teacher used a U where the seats were spread out. This limited student ability to talk to one another and forced them to concentrate on the teacher (which seems to defeat what I thought was the purpose of a U - class discussion). Another teacher used a close U. This allowed students to work easier in groups and facilitated discussion. The other shape I saw, with the desks paired off, was not, in my opinion, a good use of space. My cooperating teacher uses that shape, and she constantly struggles with chatting. I think that if you put the students in a shape like that, you are inviting them to chat with their neighbor. If you don't want chatting, don't shape your classroom like that. The one nice thing about that shape (with desks facing one direction) is that it facilitated lectures and movies. Most of the teachers I observed today made a point of telling me that when I teach I should be constantly changing what I'm doing. Watch part of a movie, lecture for a short time, hand out a worksheet, pair them off, etc. Never repeat the same activity for the entire period every single day. Sometimes, they said, it's necessary for time reasons to do one activity the whole time (if a movie is longer, if a lecture would lack coherence if cut up, or if you're running behind timewise), but you should the switch things up the next day. Through watching these various teachers operate and utilize the space they're given, I learned a lot about what to do (and what not to do!) when I teach.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
On My Mind
I cannot post on the Youtube vidoes yet. I currently don't have internet in my house, and my local library doesn't like it when I watch Youtube videos on their server (even if they are educational). Instead, I wanted to take this time to rant a little.
I hope the rest of you are having an absolutely awesome J-term Ed 115/185 experience. I am not. I was ready to quit after my first day. There's something about entering a war zone that wears a person out. Let me back up and explain.
At the school where I'm observing, education is viewed as a war between teachers and students. Their are constant undercurrents of frustration and anger, and battles are fought daily. Currently, they are revising their cell phone policy, and my cooperating teacher explained it to me in battle terms: By the current policy, cell phones are supposed to be off during the day. If a student has their cell phone on with the ringer off and a teacher never catches them, the student wins. Fine. Whatever. But if they take it out, they are in big trouble.
Excuse my slang but that sucks. I understand the frustration with cell phones in school, but I do not understand the battle mentality. This whole us vs. them thing has me supremely frustrated. I do not like the tension rising in the atmosphere. As of now, I have done very little during the day other than watch, but I'm already exhausted. I cannot imagine how the teachers feel. In my opinion, this exhaustion isn't necessary. I never viewed education as a battle until now. Since when are teachers working against students instead of for them? Why do teachers have to be constantly on their guard to catch students doing bad things?
Part of my problem is that I'm in a school which holds an educational philosophy opposite my own. My teacher and I were talking about teaching, and I mentioned my own AP US history teacher who had incorporated several fun projects into the course. My teacher said she had thought about incorporating projects but didn't have time. In her words: My students may be bored every day, but when they sit down to take the AP test, it will have been worth it.
I disagree. I believe in a fun learning environment involving interaction between students and teachers, and I believe that there is always time for more. Case in point: my teacher ended her AP class five minutes early both days I've been there, and her regular class was given twenty minutes in class to work on a worksheet today. I don't think that a teacher always has to take up every single second of class time down to the bell, but if they are going to cite lack of time, they should actually lack time. In addition, I don't believe that when the AP students sit down to take that test, that it will have been worth it. For one thing, how much will they remember or even absorb in the first place if they are bored out of their mind. In addition, tests aren't everything. Whether they walk away with a good test score or not, they still will have been bored out of their minds by the class. I believe that bad test score or not, a student should walk away liking what they learned. I believe that a good educator instills a love of learning in a students, not just a bunch of facts to recite on a test.
I hope the rest of you are having an absolutely awesome J-term Ed 115/185 experience. I am not. I was ready to quit after my first day. There's something about entering a war zone that wears a person out. Let me back up and explain.
At the school where I'm observing, education is viewed as a war between teachers and students. Their are constant undercurrents of frustration and anger, and battles are fought daily. Currently, they are revising their cell phone policy, and my cooperating teacher explained it to me in battle terms: By the current policy, cell phones are supposed to be off during the day. If a student has their cell phone on with the ringer off and a teacher never catches them, the student wins. Fine. Whatever. But if they take it out, they are in big trouble.
Excuse my slang but that sucks. I understand the frustration with cell phones in school, but I do not understand the battle mentality. This whole us vs. them thing has me supremely frustrated. I do not like the tension rising in the atmosphere. As of now, I have done very little during the day other than watch, but I'm already exhausted. I cannot imagine how the teachers feel. In my opinion, this exhaustion isn't necessary. I never viewed education as a battle until now. Since when are teachers working against students instead of for them? Why do teachers have to be constantly on their guard to catch students doing bad things?
Part of my problem is that I'm in a school which holds an educational philosophy opposite my own. My teacher and I were talking about teaching, and I mentioned my own AP US history teacher who had incorporated several fun projects into the course. My teacher said she had thought about incorporating projects but didn't have time. In her words: My students may be bored every day, but when they sit down to take the AP test, it will have been worth it.
I disagree. I believe in a fun learning environment involving interaction between students and teachers, and I believe that there is always time for more. Case in point: my teacher ended her AP class five minutes early both days I've been there, and her regular class was given twenty minutes in class to work on a worksheet today. I don't think that a teacher always has to take up every single second of class time down to the bell, but if they are going to cite lack of time, they should actually lack time. In addition, I don't believe that when the AP students sit down to take that test, that it will have been worth it. For one thing, how much will they remember or even absorb in the first place if they are bored out of their mind. In addition, tests aren't everything. Whether they walk away with a good test score or not, they still will have been bored out of their minds by the class. I believe that bad test score or not, a student should walk away liking what they learned. I believe that a good educator instills a love of learning in a students, not just a bunch of facts to recite on a test.
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